PLANE CRASH KILLS 2 FROM BARRINGTON

Carri Karuhn. Special to the TribuneCHICAGO TRIBUNE

Jerry Collins was always somewhat of an adventurer, his relatives say.

It was not uncommon for the Barrington man to go hunting for moose and deer in Canada with friends. And he would often take people salmon fishing on Lake Michigan aboard his 36-foot charter boat in Waukegan.

When his wife, JoAnne, bought him flying lessons for Christmas two years ago, he eagerly pursued his pilot's license, which he got about a month ago.

"He loved it. It was something she knew he'd like to do. He was always talking about it," said JoAnne's sister, Dawn Selleck. "He was a man's man. He did everything he wanted to do and everything a man dreamed of doing. He loved to hoot and holler, and she loved to sing."

But Collins' newest avocation turned deadly for the Barrington couple Sunday evening when the single-engine Cessna 182 he was flying crashed in a farm field in Downstate Illinois, about 50 miles north of Bloomington near the town of Odell in Nevada Township.

Jerry, 54, and JoAnne, 47, were killed instantly. Their bodies were identified using dental X-rays, said Livingston County Coroner Michael P. Burke. They had been flying a plane shared by several pilots at Palwaukee Municipal Airport.

Jerry and JoAnne Collins owned and operated Collins Fireplace and Patio, with stores in Hanover Park, Wheeling and Waukegan. Jerry also ran a boat chartering business in Waukegan, called Tammy-D, named after two of their children, Tammy and Douglas. JoAnne played piano and sang in local choirs and at family members' weddings.

"Their house was always full of music," said Selleck. "She had a beautiful, beautiful voice."

The couple had flown from Palwaukee in Wheeling Sunday morning to visit Tammy, in Bloomington-Normal, where she attends Illinois State University, Selleck said.

They had lunch with her, her boyfriend and his parents, before heading back to the Chicago area in their plane around 6:30 that evening to attend a niece's 11th birthday party in Arlington Heights.

But Jerry and JoAnne never arrived. After Douglas returned home to Barrington later that evening and discovered his parents were still not home, the family began calling around to try to locate them.

They got the news the next day.

On Monday morning, a farmer who lives a quarter-mile from the crash site spotted the wreckage. The plane went down about about 3 miles north of Odell, said Ron Masching, fire chief for the Odell Fire Protection District.

The wreckage "was all smashed, crunched together just like a ball," said Masching. He said there was no indication of a fire or explosion.

Nevada Township had experienced snow flurries of varying degrees around the time the Collinses are believed to have been flying over the area, Masching said, but an investigation has yet to determine if weather was a contributing factor.

JoAnne was no stranger to airplane crashes.

Her mother, Irene Mayer, was among 12 female musicians who survived a plane crash 50 years ago into the Sea of Japan following a tour with the USO in World War II. Everyone aboard that flight survived despite a lack of enough life rafts.

Jerry and JoAnne Collins married 23 years ago after meeting in a Palatine apartment complex, where they both lived.

The couple later lived in Arlington Heights for 20 years before moving to Barrington a year ago.

In addition to Tammy, 20, and Douglas, 22, the couple is survived by another daughter, Julie, 18. Jerry Collins has a daughter from a previous marriage, Chyra Townsend, 28, who is eight months' pregnant and lives in Texas.

"There is so much that could be said about them. They loved each other. They worked hard at their business," said Selleck. "They had four beautiful children."